Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Gorillas grow webbed feet
Gabriella, 4: Please free my mummy
THE daughter of Nazanin Zaghariratcliffe wished for her mum to be free as the pair shared a cake in her Iranian prison cell.
The heartbreak encounter came as the North London charity worker marked her 40th birthday... and her 1,000th day as a captive.
Husband Richard Ratcliffe said daughter Gabriella, four, had “very proudly” made a necklace for her mother and had helped bake a cake with her.
He added: “She was allowed in and Nazanin was able to make a small cake they could celebrate with and Gabriella cut it and wished her mum to be free.”
The little girl has been cared for by her Iranian grandparents since Nazanin was sentenced to five years for allegedly plotting to topple the Tehran regime.
Richard also revealed his wife, who has joint Uk-iranian citizenship, had won the support of the Briton recently released from detention for alleged spying in the United Arab Emirates. He said the backing of academic Matthew Hedges and his wife Daniela Tejada was invaluable and added: “It’s always really hard to know whose agenda to trust. “All of the politicians, the journalists want certain things. With the families, we know we all want the same thing.” Earlier, he shared fears his wife, who has always maintained her innocence, could lose her dearest wish of having a second child unless she is freed soon.
As friends lit candles outside the Foreign Office to mark Nazanin’s birthday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted: “If the thoughts and prayers of a nation can make a difference to you & other innocent people detained in Iran, then this will be last birthday you will be suffering such a great injustice.”
Last week he said his staff were working incredibly hard on the case and his “door was always open”. THE world’s largest gorilla is developing webbed feet as a result of inbreeding.
Swedish scientists say the defect has soared in Grauer’s gorillas as its numbers have dropped by 80% in the last 100 years.
The Democratic Republic of Congo great ape is now at risk of dying out.